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There is a lot going on in immigration law at the moment and we are looking to recruit more specialist contributors to Free Movement. If you can write fluently, you are interested in being read by a wide audience and you are fascinated by immigration law and practice then have a think about joining our small team of contributors. We are particularly looking for someone who can help with quick reaction legal analysis of case law and rule changes and who is capable of seeing the wider impacts of changes to immigration law. There will also be opportunities to write about developments and themes in immigration law, policy and practice, though. Free Movement is…

What are the rules on continuing professional development (CPD) training for immigration solicitors, barristers and OISC advisers, and what CPD training is now approved by the legal regulators? How much CPD training can now be undertaken online? Here on Free Movement we provide a real variety of online CPD and can help all three groups of immigration lawyer meet their CPD needs. As background, the CPD training regime for all three types of practitioner underwent massive changes in 2016: The requirement to undertake a specific number of hours of training per year was dropped Any training undertaken can be with any training provider, not just a regulator-approved provider Online CPD…

I am delighted to announce the appointment of Conor James McKinney as Deputy Editor for Free Movement. CJ, as he prefers to be known, joins Free Movement with a strong background in legal journalism and communication. He has written on legal affairs for the Times, the i, the Evening Standard and the popular Legal Cheek website. CJ has a particular interest and expertise in Brexit, and has appeared on BBC and LBC radio as a commentator. Before joining Free Movement, he coordinated legal coverage at the fact checking organisation Full Fact as a senior researcher. He holds degrees in law from Trinity College, Dublin and Queens’ College, Cambridge. CJ will…

Last week was Glasgow Brexitcon (don’t worry, no-one but me is calling it that), a whole day conference in Glasgow dedicated to the immigration aspects of Brexit. The idea and organisation was all the work of the wonderful Bilaal Shabbir of MBS Solicitors, who first suggested it on the Free Movement Forum. Forum members were given first dibs at the free tickets and the event was very kindly sponsored by MBS Solicitors, Drummond Miller LLP, Hastie Stable, SULNE and McNeil and Cadzow. You can see the programme and a handful of random snaps and Tweets below and until 25 September 2017 you can download the delegate pack with speaker slides…

We’re running a summer sale until 11 August 2017 on all new group memberships of up to 50 members: half price for the first year. The codes to use are when making your purchase to apply the discount are: Small groups of 10 or less use code SUMMERSALES Medium groups of up to 20 use code SUMMERSALEM Large groups of up to 50 use SUMMERSALEL The codes expire on 11 August 2017 so make sure you sign up before then. This is the cheapest Free Movement has ever been available: for a group of 50 members it works out at just £20 each for a whole year. Members receive: Full…

Closing date: 31 July 2017 5pm The Free Movement website has gone from strength to strength over the last 12 months. Readership has increased massively, to an average of over 300,000 page views per month. Ebook sales are going well and membership has gone up by 20% to 1,200 active members. Innovative fixed cost online legal services are now provided to members of the public via a partner, Seraphus Solicitors. The day to day management demands of Free Movement have also increased. There is now a small team of writers and an administrative assistant to co-ordinate. In order to focus more on writing and my other work, I am seeking…

The Free Movement blog has turned ten; the first blog post was published on 7 March 2007. In the last ten years the blog has received 9,572,432 page views (and counting…). It has been quite a ride, driven by the thirst for up to date, clear and well sourced information on immigration and asylum law. First the blog was followed by a handful of immigration lawyers and the author was anonymous. I learned more about website development and started to use images as well as text. I learned that more frequent posting attracts a bigger audience. Then came email subscriptions and social media, when I joined Twitter in September 2009. I first put my name…

I am looking to recruit a part time self employed research assistant or assistants to help with research and writing for Free Movement. Some work would be background research and likely to be uncredited. Some work would be in the form of drafts of content for the site and would be credited. Typical writing projects would include analysis of case law, summary of and comment on reports by inspectorates or NGOs, “how to” guides on specific immigration law scenarios and immigration law training materials. A successful candidate would (in no particular order): Be able to write fluently, stylishly and concisely in English Have experience of writing for the internet and…

2016 has not been a good year for free movement the concept. Non coincidentally, it has been a busy year on Free Movement the website. The response of migrants and their families to harsh rules that would break them apart is not simply to abandon their hopes and abandon the lives they have built. They resist and they fight. That is not to say they win, though. On the Free Movement website Here on Free Movement we underwent a major redesign at the end of the year. The intention has been to fit more content into the same space as well as modernising the look. One of the main functional changes…

There is a major redesign coming soon to Free Movement. You can take a sneak peak at the new design here. It is not finished yet but we are getting close. There are also changes coming to pricing, membership structure and the way the website works to try and improve access to relevant content. The redesign has been brewing for a long time and is based on three objectives: Making life easier for members based on the reader survey earlier this year Meeting the needs of non members seeking help with immigration problems Putting the website onto a fully sustainable footing First of all, some numbers. Free Movement readership now runs at…

New CPD rules are being introduced for solicitors and barristers in England and Wales and OISC advisers across the UK. The new rules are broadly similar in nature but start at different times, so it is important to know which rules apply when. At the end of the blog post you can see how Free Movement can help you meet your training needs. Solicitors New CPD rules have applied to solicitors on an optional basis since April 2015. Some other changes to the old CPD scheme were also introduced with immediate effect. The new scheme is mandatory from 1 November 2016. You can read about the changes on the SRA…

Last week saw the release of this year’s Legal 500 lawyer rankings. For those fortunate enough to receive a ranking it is an eagerly awaited event, as the excellent Legal Cheek coverage demonstrates: Humblebrags galore as latest Legal 500 listings revealed. Garden Court Chambers as a whole did very well indeed this year, receiving the highest number of individual rankings in the country. The immigration team retained our top ranking in the field, the only London set to be ranked as Tier 1: Claimant-only set Garden Court Chambers has ‘a very strong team, which is at the cutting edge of developments in the field’. Stephanie Harrison QC represented the claimants…

The Free Movement online course on the Immigration Act 2016 is now available. Based on the text of the popular ebook, the course is enhanced with 32 minutes of key points videos and clear signposting of which sections of the Act are currently in force and which are not. There is also a 20 question quiz at the end to test your knowledge. The course weighs in at 3 CPD hours for professional training purposes. Members can access the course here. At the same time, I have also set up the update training courses for January to April 2016 and have disabled access to update training courses for 2014. Podcasts and…

The Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner is making substantial changes to its CPD scheme with immediate effect. You can read about the changes on the OISC website. To help those affected, Free Movement is running a special offer of a 50% discount for the first year of Free Movement membership for OISC advisers and organisations who are not currently members. See below for details. Offer closes end of July 2016. The major changes to the OISC CPD scheme are, in short: With immediate effect there is no longer a requirement for OISC advisers to undertake a set number of CPD hours of training per year. However, OISC advisers will still…

I am currently commissioning some development work on the Free Movement website and it would be extremely useful if you could spare two minutes to answer the reader survey, which includes an opportunity to make suggestions about new features or changes you would like to see. I am very grateful to those who can find the time. The last survey was three years ago now and there have been significant changes to the blog and its readership since then. You can see the survey results from last time here if you are interested. Launch me!

The Free Movement blog has turned nine; the first blog post was published on 7 March 2007. In the last nine years the blog has received over 6.3 million page views. The single most popular blog post was about Paddington Bear (109,429) but in a depressing sign of the times a post about permanent residence and naturalisation has received 52,814 hits since it was published in November 2015. We can deduce that there are a lot of EEA nationals and their family members concerned about their long term future in the UK. The long term growth in readers can be seen below. In 2016 there have already been over 400,000 hits,…

I am away until 22 February 2016 but the blog now has a mind of its own and will continue bringing you commentary and updates about immigration and asylum law in my absence. Who knows, it might be better at it than me now.

Very kind mention for my piece on Paddington here, described as “magnificent and delightful”. Thank you, David! Do check out the other blogs, all of which I follow and find inspiration in. As David discusses, it is a mystery that more solicitors do not make better use of blogging. I highly recommend the Nearly Legal blog on housing law, but that is the only one that comes to mind. Solicitors seem to be reluctant to create a blog or website with a separate identity to their firm, which I think is a prerequisite for success with a legal blog. Source: The revival of legal blogging | Solicitors Journal

Here on Free Movement Here on Free Movement the year 2015 was the blog’s biggest so far, with 1,600,000 page views from 660,000 visitors. The total number of page views since the blog began in 2007 now stands at 5,900,000. Free Movement content is widely read and shared, with over 6,000 email subscribers, 7,500 Twitter followers and 1,870 Facebook page likes. WordPress (the software on which the blog runs) produces a pretty annual report you can see here if interested (with bonus fireworks). The top ten pages viewed this last year included some old favourites as well as some newer posts (see below, posts published this year marked with orange). With only a…

The annual round of introspection, self-congratulation, envy and feigned indifference that is the publication of the Chambers and Partners lawyer rankings has arrived again. The immigration team at Garden Court has done very well once more, both collectively and with many individuals receiving individual rankings as well. You can read the full set of very flattering profiles here. On the team front, C&P say: Garden Court Chambers remains the pre-eminent immigration set in the country, instructed in the most high-profile and sensitive matters across the spectrum of immigration, nationality and refugee law. In addition to advising on EEA free movement and PBS matters, including applications under Tiers 2 and 4, advocates…

On 14 May 2015 Free Movement published an article containing a write up of the case of R (on the application of SN) v Secretary of State for the Home Department (striking out – principles) IJR [2015] UKUT 227 (IAC). The article included a hyperlink to a firm of solicitors that Free Movement is informed was never instructed in that case. Free Movement unreservedly apologises for the confusion.

There are still some firms out there who have not yet signed up for Free Movement Membership. As an added incentive, I’m offering a 50% discount for first year of Free Movement group membership for new sign ups before 30 April 2015.

It has been eight years since I first set up and began writing Free Movement. As usual, I only realised that the anniversary had passed some time after the event: the first Free Movement blog post was on 7 March 2007. I hope you will forgive me a moment of introspection. But first, as an anniversary gift for those firms who have not yet signed up for membership, I’m offering a 50% discount on group membership for the first year. See here for details.

I’m away next week (back for a hearing on Friday) and have scheduled a few blog posts to keep you reading in my absence. Watch this space for posts on the introduction of the Immigration Act 2014 appeals regime, the new rules for visitors, a new tribunal case on statutory considerations and changes to asylum process and practice.

From today a ‘leaky paywall’ has been installed on Free Movement. Guest users can view 20 blog posts per month, after which they will find they are unable to access blog content. Inspired by the Points Based System, there are now two tiers of membership: Tier 1 allows full access to all Free Movement content including the blog, training materials and forums. All existing full Free Movement Members are Tier 1 members. The pricing remains the same, at £50 per person for groups of up to 10 and £200 for individuals, plus VAT. Tier 2 allows access to blog content only, not the training materials and forums. This is available for…

We are looking for a number of bright law graduates to join a pool of legal assistants working with barristers in the immigration team at Garden Court Chambers. Assistants will be required to conduct independent work assisting barristers with direct access cases, as well as other legal research and administrative tasks. For this reason, candidates with experience in immigration law and/or OISC registration will be at an advantage, although all applications will be considered. The positions are available on a freelance basis at an hourly rate, with flexible working times and potential call at short notice. Please submit your CV and cover letter by 5pm on 27 February to Karlia…

As you will have noticed if a returning reader to Free Movement, the site has had a visual overhaul. The intention is to present the material more clearly and cleanly and adopt more of a news or magazine layout to show more content more quickly. You will also see a new shaded ‘In brief’ section on the main page which I intend to use for shorter form updates such as case alerts, links and reports. I hope you like it. You can take a look at the evolution of the site’s design since it launched in 2007 in the gallery below.

Just a quick reminder that today is the last day of the Free Movement January sale. Use code JANSALE for a 25% discount on individual membership for a year and 50% off ebooks. While I’m at it, latest feedback on the new costs course:

I’m running a January sale on individual membership (there’s now 30 CPD hours to choose from) and ebooks. Use coupon code JANSALE when making a purchase to apply a 25% discount on individual membership (£180 including VAT, reverts to full price after one year) and a 50% discount on ebooks. The sale ends on 16 January 2015. Happy New Year!

Personally I managed to get away with only cooking one Christmas dinner this year, which alongside a proper break (other than writing this post) has reduced festive stress levels and helped provide a good end to the year. I’ve settled into Garden Court Chambers in 2014 and have much enjoyed working alongside the best immigration barristers and clerks in the business. On the home front, my youngest daughter was potty trained and learned to talk this year, both of which she took to rather well. Arguably too well in the case of the whole learning to talk thing. My eldest goes to school in 2015, so my wife and I…

I am pleased to be able to report that there are now over 270 signed up Free Movement Members with access to the training and reference materials, including a mix of some administrators and blog contributors, group members and individual members. 424 courses have been completed and 600 CPD hours undertaken. 464 ebooks had been sold when I last checked. Each podcast gets over a thousand unique downloads. I’ve picked up over 5,000 Twitter followers and 1,000 Facebook Likes along the way and the blog is getting over 120,000 page views a month from around 65,000 visits and around 38,000 visitors.

Band 1 | Garden Court Chambers THE SET This impressively sized set leads the way at the London Immigration Bar, and offers an unrivalled range of capabilities across all types of work. Specialist areas of expertise include national security, family and child immigration and asylum matters. Sources say: “Their approachability and depth of knowledge are impressive, and they provide high-quality work often at short notice.” Client service: “The clerking has always been excellent – you can always get hold of the right person. They do a weekly immigration bulletin and Colin Yeo writes a blog called Free Movement which is wonderful. Their conference facilities are in a really nice location,…

I’m now away for two weeks on holiday, returning to work 15 September 2014. There are a few blog posts pre-written and pre-scheduled to keep you entertained until then, and at least one colleague has threatened to write something while I’m away as well. Someone is keeping an eye on the blog contact form and editor@ email address in my absence if there is a problem with the blog, CPD training access or ebooks but anything else will have to wait until I’m back. It is all automated and access is granted immediately on payment so you can join up while I’m away if you want to get ahead with…

With the help of a trusty bottle of wine I’ve updated the online courses on Article 8, the Immigration Act and the Immigration Rules (now renamed and worth 2 CPD) and on the Immigration Act 2014 (2 CPD). I have also updated the ebook on the Immigration Act 2014. The updates add commentary and analysis on the statutory human rights considerations in the new Part 5A of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 commenced as of 28 July 2014, issues around commencement and the interaction of the newly amended Immigration Rules with the statutory considerations (a very interesting topic in fact). Enjoy. Free Movement ebooks (not the HJT manual) are available…

Free Movement is now accepting advertising. Placing adverts is handled through an ad agency, buysellads.com and an advertising pack for those interested in placing adverts is available for download: The decision to accept advertising one is due to a combination of factors. One is that some development work on the blog will be needed in the autumn, which requires real actual money. Another is that Free Movement is more than a hobby these days and absorbs rather a lot of real actual time. Time is money, as they say, and ideally I’d like to be able to recruit an assistant, which would improve the blog’s coverage of immigration law issues. Another…

So, the other day someone brought to my attention some internal Home Office emails about a Free Movement article. These were disclosed under a Freedom of Information request made by one Clarke Simpson, answered at the Home Office by one P. Zebedee (really?). The episode started off as a bizarre one and is now downright weird.

Sign up now as a Free Movement Member and get a free Immigration Act 2014 ebook! Free Movement Membership starts at £50 plus VAT per person for groups of 10 or more and is available to all. Membership includes access to the forums and is a cheap and convenient way to access dedicated immigration law CPD training and includes courses on the Immigration Act 2014, Article 8 and the Immigration Rules, Zambrano and EU citizenship, urgent injunction applications, an introduction to immigration law and monthly update courses. New courses are added every month and existing courses are updated to include new cases and developments. As a taster for the…

Updates, commentary and advice on immigration and asylum law

Disclaimer

The information and commentary on this website is provided free of charge for information purposes only. The information and commentary does not, and is not intended to, amount to legal advice to any person.

We try to make sure information is accurate at the date it is published. Immigration law changes very rapidly, though. The older the blog post on this site, the more likely it is that there have been legal developments since it was published.